{"id":793424,"date":"2025-02-07T07:00:06","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T12:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=793424"},"modified":"2025-02-07T07:00:06","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T12:00:06","slug":"aliens-could-detect-earth-from-12000-light-years-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=793424","title":{"rendered":"Aliens could detect Earth from 12,000 light-years away"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_324133\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-324133\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-324133\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A recent study by researchers at the SETI Institute in collaboration with the Characterizing Atmospheric Technosignatures project and the Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center recreated what aliens with human-level tech might see if they looked at Earth. Image via Breakthrough Listen\/ Danielle Futselaar\/ SETI Institute.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>How easy is it to see Earth\u2019s civilization?<\/h3>\n<p>Could an alien civilization with technology like ours detect us looking back at them? What would aliens see? And from how far away could they see it? Knowing how easy Earth and earthlings are to spot might simplify work for scientists looking for alien life. The SETI Institute said on February 3, 2025, that certain signatures from Earth could be seen nearly as far away as the center of the Milky Way galaxy.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers published their peer-reviewed study in <em>The Astronomical Journal<\/em> on February 3, 2025. Its conclusions might provide a guide for finding ET.<\/p>\n<p>Co-author Macy Huston of the University of California, Berkeley, said the study of signs of humanity could be revealing:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Our goal with this project was to bring SETI back \u2018down to Earth\u2019 for a moment and think about where we really are today with Earth\u2019s technosignatures and detection capabilities. In SETI, we should never assume other life and technology would be just like ours, but quantifying what \u2018ours\u2019 means can help put SETI searches into perspective.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The 2025 EarthSky lunar calendar makes a great gift. Get yours today!<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Press Release: Earth Detecting Earth\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Pdg2x3NP2ds?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Simulating humanity\u2019s galactic technosignature footprint<\/h3>\n<p>Human beings can be a noisy bunch. We\u2019ve been intentionally and unintentionally sending messages to anyone who can hear them for more than a century. And we\u2019ve used many different wavelengths to announce our presence.<\/p>\n<p>So the paper\u2019s authors thought it might be helpful to suppose other civilizations are just as boisterous. Our lasers and radios, city lights and spacecraft, atmospheric pollutants and even our cities signal to the rest of the galaxy that we\u2019re here. Researchers modeled the combined effects into a <em>mirror Earth<\/em>. Seekers after other intelligences might find it of use for their own quest for ET.<\/p>\n<p>Yet the authors added a caution:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>It should be noted that the idea of a <em>mirror Earth<\/em> or Earth-level extraterrestrial intelligence is not meant to be taken literally but is instead a helpful framing device. There is no universal technological level or single civilization on Earth. We cannot assume that convergent technological or biological evolution would be at play across the galaxy, and the \u2018present\u2019 level of technology rapidly changes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In other words, we might find aliens that do some of the things we do. But don\u2019t expect a parallel Earth where Spock and Kirk would be happy to go adventuring.<\/p>\n<h3>Making a good first impression for the aliens<\/h3>\n<p>SETI seeks signs of not just ET, but intelligent civilizations. What they yearn to find is some unnatural energetic event. They\u2019re searching for intentional signals and obvious artificial patterns. Knowing how we might appear to other observers might give clues to finding such signals.<\/p>\n<p>Lead author Sofia Sheikh of the SETI Institute explains:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>One of the most satisfying aspects of this work was getting to use SETI as a cosmic mirror: What does Earth look like to the rest of the galaxy? And how would our current impacts on our planet be perceived? While of course we cannot know the answer, this work allowed us to extrapolate and imagine what we might assume if we ever discover a planet, with, say, high concentrations of pollutants in its atmosphere.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_501016\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-501016\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/earthsky.org\/upl\/2025\/02\/Earth-Technosignatures-Graph-from-SETI-Institute-February-2025-800x441.jpg\" alt=\"Aliens: A graph with colored dots ranged left to right.\" width=\"800\" height=\"441\" class=\"size-large wp-image-501016\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-501016\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This graph shows the maximum distances of detection for each of Earth\u2019s modern-day technosignatures using earthly receiving technology. The distance scale includes various astronomical objects of interest. Image via SETI Institute.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>How bright does human civilization shine for aliens?<\/h3>\n<p>The noise humanity makes is mostly in the form of electromagnetic radiation. Our signals are sent to space by radio waves of various kinds and strengths. Communications lasers beam our messages skyward too. And there are other signs, like orbiting satellites and the heat from our cities. The researchers looked at all of the signals and how far away they could be detectable.<\/p>\n<p>Broadcasting from the former Arecibo Observatory might have been a mistake, if hostile aliens are listening. The signal it and other scopes like it generate have the power to reach as far as 12,000 light-years, the researchers found. That\u2019s all the way the star-packed central region of the Milky Way.<\/p>\n<p>No reason to worry, of course. The signals we send take 12,000 years to arrive. And they\u2019re the only broadcasts we make that can carry so far. Yet Deep Space Network signals to our spacecraft have already reached alien suns. They can eventually travel as far as 65 light-years before losing coherence.<\/p>\n<h3>More signatures detectable from closer stars<\/h3>\n<p>Any civilization on the closest star \u2013 Proxima Centauri \u2013 could detect a range of other signs we exist. Some kinds of laser beams \u2013 used for detecting and analyzing materials \u2013 have enough power to travel the 4.36 light-years that separate us. Some radio broadcasts can also bridge that gap. And they can even see how dirty we\u2019ve made Earth\u2019s air, the research paper explains:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>There are other atmospheric technosignatures in Earth\u2019s atmosphere that have very few or even no known nontechnological sources. For example, chlorofluorocarbons, a subcategory of halocarbons, are directly produced by human technology (with only very small natural sources), e.g., refrigerants and cleaning agents, and their presence in Earth\u2019s atmosphere constitutes a nearly unambiguous technosignature.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>So if we know what Earth\u2019s atmosphere looks like as seen from a distance \u2013 perhaps as viewed by a sun-observing spacecraft like the recently-launched Proba-3 \u2013 we might find clues to what alien industriousness could leave behind.<\/p>\n<p>Bottom line: Researchers looking for alien life say Earth might be detectable by ETs with tech like our own. Our civilization can be seen from 12,000 light-years away.<\/p>\n<p>Source: Earth Detecting Earth: At What Distance Could Earth\u2019s Constellation of Technosignatures Be Detected with Present-day Technology?<\/p>\n<p>Via the SETI Institute<\/p>\n<p>Read more: Do aliens exist? What scientists really think<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"cp-load-after-post\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"post-author\">\n<h4>Dave Adalian<\/h4>\n<p>                    View Articles\n                  <\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-tags\">\n<h6 data-udy-fe=\"text_7c58270d\">About the Author:<\/h6>\n<p>Award-winning reporter and editor Dave Adalian&#8217;s fascination with the cosmos began during a long-ago summer school trip. That fieldtrip never ended, and still Dave pursues adventures under the night sky.&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\nDave grew up in California&#8217;s Tulare County &#8211; where the San Joaquin Valley meets the Sierra Nevada  &#8211; a wilderness larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined.&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\nHe studied English, American literature and mass communications at the College of the Sequoias and the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has worked as a reporter and editor for a variety news publications on- and offline during a career spanning more than 30 years.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/earthsky.org\/space\/aliens-detect-earth-from-12000-light-years-away\/?rand=772280\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent study by researchers at the SETI Institute in collaboration with the Characterizing Atmospheric Technosignatures project and the Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center recreated what aliens with human-level tech&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":793425,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-793424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earth-sky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=793424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/793425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=793424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=793424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=793424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}